His phone rang, and he wasn't surprised to be getting a call from Doc. He was, however, surprised to hear what Doc had to tell him. It was their biggest lead up to that point, and his father was going to have to accept that the past was, indeed, repeating itself. A lot of old wounds would be reopened by this news.
The Prince girl had been drugged by whomever she'd fed from after leaving the nightclub. Doc had treated another girl who was found in the club's basement, beaten and unconscious. The two girls had the same drug in their systems. The newest victim also ingested it during a feeding. Fortunately for the patient he treated earlier, she was a talented child with telekinetic and telepathic abilities. According to the boy who found her, she was able to call him telepathically for help.
"That's incredible; but how did she get away? Did her rescuer see the assailant?" Griffin questioned. "We are going to need to visit this girl. If she was aware enough to call for help, she may have some useful information."
"That is going to prove difficult. I went back to check on the girl, and she was gone. Chase was caring for her, and he did have some information he acquired from her, but not much. When she woke in a strange place, confused and frightened, she bolted. All Chase could tell me is her first name."
"Do you mean Chase Deidrick?"
"Yes, sir. He found her in the basement of the club his father owns. He took her to his condo downtown. He had Kayden Paris call me while he was still en route. I arrived shortly after him. It was fast thinking of him to get her out of there before anyone noticed a problem. I'm thankful he immediately called for help, because all we have to connect these kidnappings is the drug I found in their blood. If I hadn't seen the girl before she took off, we wouldn't have a clear link. I have samples of the Davis boy's tissues being analyzed, but that'll take a little longer to process. There was no blood left, and tissue analysis is more time consuming," Doc explained.
"That doesn't explain how she got away from her attacker. Did she tell Chase how she escaped?"
"He said she showed him how she got away." Doc sounded disbelieving.
"I don't understand."
"I think you should speak to Chase about that. The girl is telekinetic, as well as telepathic." Doc relayed this information with a skeptical tone.
Griffin had never heard of another vampire with telepathic and telekinetic abilities, and judging by the silence on the other end of the phone, neither had Doc. "I believe you are correct. I'm going to visit the young Mr. Deidrick. Thank you for the information. I want you to call me as soon as you get results back on the Davis boy." Griffin hung up and began to rub his temples.
He followed his father home and took his parents into the study to present his case for aggressive action. Then he called Chase. Griffin needed to sit down with Chase and Kayden in order to glean every bit of information he could.
Dani knew her friends at school were pretty pissed at for her disappearing from school, especially after her mom called and Olivia realized she was completely off the grid. No one had a clue where she was, and she was sure they would really want to know what she'd been doing if she decided to tell them.
Olivia tackled her when she entered the dorm on Monday afternoon. She said she was just about to start making "Have you seen this girl?" posters and stapling them all over town. After her jubilant reception, Olivia wanted answers that Dani wasn't about to give. Olivia was mad for a couple of days, but she soon came around.
She only missed one day of school, so catching up wasn't too difficult. Dealing with the injuries still plaguing her body was another thing entirely. It had been tricky hiding the bruises from Olivia and trying to move around slowly to avoid wincing in pain from her cracked ribs, especially since Olivia was watching her like a hawk.
She spoke to her mother without giving much detail and promised to drive back home on Friday. Her mother would be interested to hear what happened the other day; not that Dani thought she would be surprised. Dani went all black-eyed freak and her mom hadn't reacted at all. She couldn't wait to see how she took the news that Dani was also a blood-sucking freak. That's right, a black-eyed, red-and-white-striped, blood-sucking freak. Wasn't that what all parents dreamed their children would grow up to be?
Tessa had someone coming to help explain her heritage to her. Dani thought heritage was a ridiculous understatement. The first and most obvious thing Dani noticed was her hair. Several of the white steaks in the front of her head now had thin red highlights running through them, and she actually liked it. The new highlights had also been a source of constant jabs from her friends in the past few days. Jared had chosen to believe her absence was due to her attending a Goth spa to get her hair tricked out. Of course, Jared knew she'd left because of boy drama, but he was too much of a gentleman to tell.
Dani had all-new nifty abilities, like being able to turn the lights on and off without getting out of bed, and picking things up from the other side of the room and floating them around. The first time it happened had scared the shit out of her. She'd been thinking that it would be nice if her laptop would come to her since she was so comfy in bed. Imagine her surprise when it lifted from the desk, drifted across the room, and landed on her lap. It was handy when she left her cell at her desk and was too lazy to get up when it rang. Just the day before, she was studying on her bed when Jared knocked on the door. She knew who it was by his distinct smell. Jared smelled like mint and rain, not something intangible like happiness-as if happiness had a smell. She willed the door to open and the look on his face when he entered and found no one behind the door was hysterical, but he didn't ask who had opened it. Her senses of smell and sight were off the charts. She could tell what the specials of the day at the cafeteria were from a block away, or who had illicit drugs in their rooms when she walked down the hall.
The most difficult part had been trying to learn to control her telepathic senses. She didn't like unintentionally eavesdropping on the thoughts of others. It was just rude. Plus, the fact that she didn't normally hear words but actually caught pictures made it even more intimate and embarrassing. When she was trying to concentrate on her professor and the professor was imagining the things she'd like to do to the cute guy in the front row, it put a nasty spin on her day. Twice while drifting off to sleep she'd thought about Chase and she somehow breached the distance between them. He felt her there in his mind. He tried to talk to her and apologize both times, but Dani quickly retreated. The belief in her ability to do all of those things was enough to get a girl committed. But as she had seen at Chase's place, she wasn't the only black-eyed freak in town. These things had to be vampire traits. Her daddy's legacy lived on.
Dani and Jared were growing very close. They studied, ate dinner, and hung out together every day. Not that Dani was ready for a relationship. But if she were, Jared would be the kind of guy she wanted. He was good-looking, smart, and not engaged or dating anyone. She knew Jared was aware that there was something strange about her, but he didn't seem to care. He pretended as if he didn't notice when she accidentally commented on his thoughts or opened the door without getting up.
There were two problems with dating Jared. First was that she couldn't stop thinking about Chase, and second was that as time passed, she found herself thinking about feeding more often. She hadn't done it again since the first disastrous time, but she knew eventually she'd have to give into the need. She would have to deal with both of these problems if she were going to move on with her life. Chase wasn't an option for her, and Dani was afraid feeding would become something she couldn't avoid forever.
It was Thursday, and the gang decided to head to the club. Of course they wanted her to go, but the club didn't bring back happy memories for her anymore. Jared agreed to stay behind with her, but she knew he really wanted to go. After giving it some thought, she decided that she wasn't going to let her fear, or the possible presence of Chase, stop her from living. She had two long years to live in that town, and she wouldn't spend it cowering in her room. So when Jared showed up to study, she answered the door in a shimmering black minidress she'd borrowed from Lindsay, a black belt that accentuated her small waist, and a pair of black strappy heels.
Jared took a long, slow stroll around her, checking out everything from the loose updo of her hair to the red polish on her toenails. She meant to be sexy that night, and it seemed to have worked. She didn't at all mind standing there while Jared looked her over and gathered his thoughts.